G626 Book Review of The Fall of Icarus by N.R. Bates
Name of Book:The Fall of Icarus
ISBN: 9780993190582
Publisher: Self published?
Year it was published: 2015
Summary:
Three interconnected short-stories set in Paris explore the issue of choice, survival and transformation. In the first story, a young man on his first business trip is waylaid by an aberrant elevator. In the pivotal tale, a young scientist re-imagines the Greek myth of Icarus and his fall to earth. In the final story, a young woman who cannot recall her own name relates the fantastical tale of a girl who can fly.
Author: N.R. Bates
About the Author:
(From France Book Tours)
NR Bates was born in London, grew up in Wales, and lived in Canada and Bermuda. He shares his life with his wife and his house with seven cats, one dog and the subtropical wildlife of lizards, wolf spiders and ant colonies that seek out a better life indoors. He is an oceanographer and scientist, and has published more than one hundred and thirty scientific papers on ocean chemistry, climate change and ocean acidification. He is a Senior Scientist at the Bermuda Institute of Ocean Sciences and Professor of Ocean Biogeochemistry at the University of Southampton, UK. His novels focus on epic fantasy and magic realism, and inspired by his deep love of the ocean and environmental sciences.
Visit his website
Buy the book | on Amazon.com | Amazon.co.uk
While I did see some connections between the two stories and the third story, I'm not sure how else they connected to one another. I found the writing to be crisp and something that is not quite summer nor fall, that time in between. I also liked the retelling of the story of Icarus and how human and relatable he felt throughout the second story.
1. The Elevator
One Sentence Summary:
The first story is told in first person narrative from a man's point of view. The guy recently arrived to Paris from London and has multiple negative experiences with a vintage elevator at a hotel.
2. The Fall of Icarus
One Sentence Summary:
Possibly the narrator is a girl or a young woman, she talks about the feelings that Icarus has experienced as he was flying and how much she identifies with him.
3. The Girl
One Sentence Summary:
The narrator is a young woman who doesn't remember her name but she meets an elderly couple and tells them the story of a young woman who grew wings and flew away.
This is for France Book Tours
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4 out of 5(0: Stay away unless a masochist 1: Good for insomnia 2: Horrible but readable; 3: Readable and quickly forgettable, 4: Good, enjoyable 5: Buy it, keep it and never let it go.)
Thank you so much participating in the tour and posting a positive review of the short stories. I'm really glad that you enjoyed the stories. One of the links between the three stories is their location. For those readers who know Paris well, the three stories take place around the Place Cambronne (near the Metro stop) and the Rue de Suffren that the UNESCO building is located on. There are of course other deeper links between the three tales, some of the clues for which are fairly evident while others are less easy to find.
ReplyDeleteI wish all your readers of your website and blog the very best of luck with the book giveaway.
NR Bates (Nick)
thanks for your nice words. It was also helpful to do a one sentence summary of each story. Emma at FBT
ReplyDeleteInteresting cover.
ReplyDeleteAnn